CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer - Transcript

CNN

SHOW: CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER 12:00

HEADLINE: Interview With Ricardo Sanchez; Interview With Abdullah Gul; Interview With John Dean

GUESTS: Ricardo Sanchez, Dick Durbin, Saxby Chambliss, Abdullah Gul, John Dean, Dan Benton, Dan Christman, Don Shepperd

BYLINE: Wolf Blitzer, Harris Whitbeck, Nic Robertson, Josie Burke

HIGHLIGHT:
Interviews with Ricardo Sanchez, Abdullah Gul, John Dean.

BODY:
BLITZER: Commemorations marking the 50th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War still going on today, Sunday, here in Washington, D.C.

Welcome back to LATE EDITION.

Could the 9/11 terror attacks have been prevented? A joint House-Senate panel this past week released its long-awaited report on the intelligence and law enforcement failures that missed key events leading up to the 9/11 attacks.

Joining us now to discuss the report and other issues are two members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: in Chicago, the Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois; and here in Washington, the Republican, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.

Senators, welcome back to LATE EDITION.

I'll ask you first. Do you believe, based on what you know right now, Senator Durbin, that it could have been prevented?

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: It would have taken some luck, but there were clues, there was indications, a lot of information was there. It wasn't picked up on, it certainly wasn't shared by the federal agencies.

But if all of that information had come together, someone would have needed the foresight to put it all into a pattern and say, "I suspect something like the World Trade Center might happen." We could have done a better job, but it would have taken quite a bit of luck to avert it.

BLITZER: And one of the final requests, Senator Chambliss, and I'll put this up on the screen. I'll read it to you: "The important point is that the intelligence community, for a variety of reasons, did not bring together and fully appreciate a range of information that could have greatly increased enhanced its chance of uncovering and preventing Osama bin Laden's plan to attack the United States on September 11, 2001."

That's a pretty damning indictment.

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: Well, the fact of the matter is that the intelligence was gathered; the intelligence was not shared. I do think our folks had a wealth of information that, had they shared it with other intelligence agencies around the world, and even around the United States, and even vertically within those agencies themselves, there certainly is the potential, as Dick says, it would have taken an awful lot of luck.

And I don't think anybody has concluded at this point, any group has concluded at this point, that there's any way we could have picked up on the fact that this was the day they planned the incident, this is the way they were going to carry it out. It would have just been very, very difficult to do.

BLITZER: Senator Durbin, though, there was an informant who actually lived with two of the hijackers in the San Diego area, an FBI informant.

In the conclusions of the report, they write this: "What is clear, however, is that the informant's contact with the hijackers, had they been capitalized on, would have given the San Diego FBI field office, perhaps, the intelligence community's best chance to unravel the September 11th plot."

A lot of people looking back, even with hindsight, to say, what was going on here? Two of the hijackers, one informant working with them, and they didn't know about it?

DURBIN: So many missed opportunities. The San Diego incident you mentioned; the Phoenix memo that came out to Washington and was just pushed through the bureaucracy and virtually ignored; the Moussaoui arrest that could have led us to some sound and solid evidence early on.

Putting this all together -- some of the communications that were not translated for several days when the timely translation might have made a difference. You put it all together, and you say there were a lot of things there, a lot of information. We just didn't coordinate the agencies; we didn't move in a timely fashion.

I guess my only concern is, though we made measurable progress since September 11th, we have a long way to go. This latest incident with the uranium from Niger -- we still have the intelligence agencies not really coordinating their information so that we have one reliable source to base our national security.

BLITZER: Well, let me press you on that point, Senator Durbin. Nearly two years after 9/11, what needs to be done right now to get, let's say, one part of the U.S. government talking to another part of the U.S. government, get law enforcement and intelligence, if you will, on the same page to make sure this could never happen again?

DURBIN: Well, let me give you the good news first. At the FBI, they had computer technology that was ancient. Director Bob Mueller came in after September 11th. They've made dramatic strides forward. They've really improved the information technology at the FBI.

But what we're still finding is that there is this resistance between agencies to share information. And that will take leadership from the top, forcing down a discipline on these agencies, so the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA and the FBI and all the other law enforcement intelligence agencies start talking to one another.

It's still -- we're a long way from where we should be, and this report reminds us of what can happen if you don't do it right.

BLITZER: Senator Chambliss, do you agree, the Homeland Security Department, the intelligence community, law enforcement, the FBI, still a long way from where they should be right now?

CHAMBLISS: Well, there's no question about it. We held a hearing in my subcommittee in the Judiciary Committee. I chair the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security.

Two weeks ago, we had the State Department, as well as two folks from the Homeland Security Department, testifying about what we're doing in the area of issuing visas.

All of these folks who came in came in legally, but most of them were still here illegally, because the State Department, frankly, was not doing the job that they're assigned to do, which is to monitor those people.

When we asked the question, where are you today, could this happen again, I'll have to be honest with you, I was very, very disappointed in the response that we got, both from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

And I fired off a letter both to Secretary Powell and to Secretary Ridge, and told them that here we are, 22 months after the fact -- and we are doing a better job, there's no question about it. We've not had another incident in the United States. But it could happen today or it could happen tomorrow, in part because these agencies still are not sharing information.

These agencies are not coordinated to the point to where they're getting the necessary intelligence on people seeking to come to the United States and sharing that information among themselves. And we've got to do a better job of doing that, and we've got to do it in a hurry.

BLITZER: One other part of the report, Senator Durbin, involves Saudi Arabia. As you well know, 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. It says this: "A number of U.S. government officials complained to the joint inquiry about a lack of Saudi cooperation in terrorism investigations, both before and after the September 11th attacks."

Are you satisfied with the level of cooperation from Saudi Arabia?

DURBIN: No, I'm not.

And I think we treat Saudi Arabia with kid gloves. They're so well-connected on Capitol Hill. The biggest names in the political history of Congress and administrations are all working for Saudi Arabia. And we have a kind of a hands-off policy, and that has to end.

We need their oil, we need their cooperation, but we've got to be honest with the American people. When the Saudis are not helping us fight the war on terrorism, when they're directly or indirectly financing that war on terrorism, we have to hold them accountable.

There isn't enough accountability, when it comes to Saudi Arabia. And Congress, I'm afraid, really has to be held responsible for that.

BLITZER: Senator Shelby -- and I want to ask this to Senator Chambliss -- Senator Shelby was very critical of the decision to classify, redact, if you will, certain pages from the final report, in effect to protect what some are saying Saudi Arabia, the U.S.-Saudi relationship.

I want you to listen to what Senator Shelby said earlier today on Meet the Press.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: You see the blank pages, they're classified. I think they're classified for the wrong reason. I went back and read every one of those pages thoroughly, two or three days ago. My judgment is, 95 percent of that information could be declassified, become uncensored, so the American people would know.

SHELBY: This might be embarrassing to some international relations.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BLITZER: Do you agree with your fellow Republican senator?

CHAMBLISS: Well, I think part of that is true, but what you have to remember is that, in the intelligence community, which is a very complex community, we have sources and methods that must be protected. We have people who are out in communities, people who are named in this particular report, who, if we divulged their names, we put their life at risk.

We have methods of gathering information that is used worldwide, and if we disclose the methods that we use of gathering this information, that's going to severely inhibit us, and maybe even not allow us to gather information in the future.

So, while Dick may be right, there's some parts of it that may be in the gray area, on the borderline of maybe could have been declassified, overall, I think it was right that we not reveal any sources and methods, so that we can continue to do a good job of protecting Americans.

BLITZER: Are you confident, Senator Durbin, that the president did not mislead the American public on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities, going into the war?

DURBIN: There is absolutely no evidence that the president knowingly misled the American people. I've never made that charge, nor have I heard it made from any credible source. But it is clear that those around him misled him, and misled the American people indirectly, by making certain that there were claims made that couldn't be backed up with evidence.

Now, that's a serious charge. I'm glad the Senate Intelligence Committee is not going to stop. We're going to call in the White House staffers. Senator Roberts, the chairman of the committee, has said he wants to get to the bottom of this. I support him completely. That's exactly what we should do.

BLITZER: Well, I asked the question because your Democratic colleague, Senator Bob Graham of Florida, was on TV this morning defending his statement of only a few days earlier, that perhaps this was enough for the Congress to go ahead and impeach the president, the intelligence misstatements going into the war.

DURBIN: Well, I respect Bob Graham a lot, but I don't share that sentiment. I believe that what we need to do is to follow the evidence, bring in the White House staff, and find out how this process worked. And let's take it to its logical conclusion, whatever that happens to be.

But I'm not prepared to take Bob Graham's position at this point. The evidence doesn't support it.

BLITZER: And I'll give you the last word, Senator Chambliss. The whole nature of the weapons of mass destruction, is there any credible evidence right now that there were stockpiles that were ready to be deployed on the eve of the war?

CHAMBLISS: Well, certainly we gave him every opportunity to destroy, hide, give away those weapons of mass destruction. Even Bill Clinton has come out this week and said, when he left office, he was absolutely certain that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

So I think the important point is that we're going to continue to look for them, we'll ultimately find them, but we removed a guy who we know had weapons of mass destruction and had the capability and probably the determination to use them to kill and harm Americans, and he no longer has that ability.

David Kay will be in town this week. Dick and I, obviously, are both on the Senate Intelligence Committee. David Kay is the gentleman that the president has tasked to lead the charge to find the weapons of mass destruction. He'll be testifying before our committee on Thursday. We look forward to hearing from him and getting an update. I hope we'll be able to come back next Sunday and tell you we're getting very, very close.

BLITZER: All right. We'll soon find out. Senator Chambliss, thanks very much.

Senator Durbin, thanks to you as well.

CHAMBLISS: My pleasure.

DURBIN: Thank you.